Sorry for my outburst of personal misery the other day. Sometimes it all just gets to me. I know my small problems are nothing compared with some of the awful things other people go through. I hate to be a whinger. Thank you all for your support via emails and comments (and even a visit!), it means a great deal to me.

On top of Sailor, Alex broke out in a horrendous “hot spot” on his face and needed treatment. It’s amazing how quickly they can crop up and become an infected and inflamed mess. Poor Alex is now sporting the newest dog fashion of the one-sided-facial-shave with the “must have” accessory—the plastic e-collar. Oh woe is he! Three times per day he has to have his antibiotics and his wound cleaned and spread with panalog. He is not the best of patients to be tended by one with not much patience. We are managing. My legs will have bruises for weeks and the furniture is also suffering the brunt of his inadequacies of maneuvering with a plastic cone on his head.

Sailor has started on the last chemo protocol that we can try. This one is a five week cycle. He gets two different drugs injected at the vet, then home with prednisone and another drug (Matulane). He goes back in 7 days for another injection and stays on the at-home meds for another week. After that he gets three weeks off. We won’t know if this one is working until after the second injection. We are hoping he can handle this protocol as there is a 30% chance that he could become sick from it (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea). It’s even more expensive than the previous treatment. The Matulane alone was $236.00 for 14 capsules! ouch.

It’s been gloomy and rainy all week, but it looks like the sun may just come out today. The grass outside my window is actually looking green and the forsythia hedge has a glow of yellow about it.

Yesterday’s weather was very spring-like. Beautiful blue sky, warm sun, and just the slightest breeze. Nothing like the gray skies, wind, and chilly rain that we’ve seen so far this year. We got out and worked in the yard a bit, getting rid of leaves that didn’t get cleaned up in the fall. They are everywhere! We made some good progress. At least our front yard (after professional clean-up) is now prepared and ready for the grass to start growing. Just when that will be, I don’t know. I snapped some pictures of the only things showing signs of life in my yard.

This tree in the front yard is always the first to show signs of budding. I don’t know what kind of tree it is but I will soon since I finally bought a tree identification book.

These bushes are planted along the front of the house. I don’t really like them but I don’t know what I would put in their place either. When it flowers (which is has decided is now) it’s kind of pretty. I think it’s called a Chinese-something-or-other.

The forsythia bush in the back flower bed has a bud or two waiting to pop.

The wild onions that proliferate our back yard are growing like crazy. I should put them in a salad or something. They are flavorful. (Note: that’s Alex enjoying the yard behind them.)

The daffodils are making progress over my photo of two weeks ago, but not much.

And that’s about the extent of spring in my yard. Today it’s back to being gray and sullen outside. By noon it’s supposed to be raining. I know it’s not the way the saying really goes but I’m hoping that all our March showers will bring April flowers. I’m not complaining, truly I’m not. I’m just tired of Winter and more than ready for Spring.

Some of you may be wondering how Sailor is doing since his diagnosis of lymphoma and his resulting chemotherapy. It’s been kind of an up and down journey so far. The first protocol which he had started the last time I wrote had to be abandoned after his nodes doubled in one week after the third treatment. It was very discouraging for us since this is the protocol that 80% of dogs respond well to. Not so for Sailor. Although he tolerated the chemo extremely well and was not at all ill from the treatments, it obviously was not working.

We started a new protocol five weeks ago. Instead of having a treatment every week this particular protocol is given three weeks apart. It had a 50/50 chance of putting his cancer into remission. After the first treatment his nodes decreased by about 2/3 during the first week and they stayed down for the next two weeks. On his second treatment our vet was discouraged that the nodes were still not normal; hence no remission. She was skeptical that the second treatment would have much effect. We went ahead with the same protocol anyway and made an appointment to have him checked in two weeks time instead of leaving it the full three weeks. Her thinking behind this was that if it was not working and his nodes increased in size again, we shouldn’t wait another week before switching to a different protocol.

Today was his two week appointment. I had been monitoring his nodes during that time and could not really tell any difference in them. Some days they would feel slightly smaller but it was not enough to be certain of. The vet confirmed that they were approximately the same size that they were two weeks ago with no changes. This is not the greatest news, but neither is it the worst. Her term was “partial remission.” Hey, I never thought I’d be glad to hear those two words, but I am. He has even gained weight. This might just be due to my giving him extra protein in the form of cooked meats added to his kibble which is supposed to be good for fighting cancer. I’ve cut back on the amount of kibble and give him at least 4 oz. of fresh meat at every meal.

Sailor doesn’t know he’s sick. He gobbles his food, has a high energy level, his coat shines, his eyes sparkle. He groans and moans when I hug him in his little Sailor-talk. We can’t ask for anything more right now than his quality of life.

We went in today fully expecting to switch protocols and start a new one, but we were all in agreement that we should continue with this one until it isn’t working anymore. So, no chemo today but we will go back in next week for our normal three week treatment. We are keeping our paws crossed that his nodes continue to behave! He will never be “cured” of this cancer but for now we are managing to keep the monster at bay.

Today is February 29th. Happy Leap Day! Here is what the NY Times had to say in their Sky Watch section:

Leap Day is an artifact that dates back to 46 B.C. when Julius Caesar took the advice of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who knew that the solar year was about 365.25 days in length. So to account for that residual quarter of a day, leap day was added to the calendar every four years.

Unfortunately, the new Julian calendar was 11 minutes and 4 seconds longer than the actual solar year. By 1582 the calendar had fallen out of step with the solar year by 10 days. It was then that Pope Gregory XIII, with the advice of his own astronomer, Clavius, produced the Gregorian calendar. Ten days were omitted after Oct 4, 1582, making the next day Oct. 15. Then, to closely match the length of the solar year, leap years were skipped in century years. The exceptions were those equally divisible by 400. That is why 2000 was a leap year but 1900 was not.

Whew! Do we really know what day it is ... or not?

Today I’m taking a short break from bringing you armchair travels and instead we are going to come into my back yard. The weather over the past week has been very strange. We’ve had rain and fog.

Friday morning we had thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. In the winter. Saturday morning we had a few brief snow showers that left about an inch of snow. About 11:00 Saturday night we were quite rudely awakened by an enormous clap of thunder, followed by three large dogs jumping up on our bed. Several more very close, blindingly-bright lightning strikes and ground shaking thunder claps followed the first, then torrents of rain pounded down on the roof. In the morning we were greeted with a solid sheet of ice on everything.

Sunday morning it snowed very heavily for about an hour.

An hour later all that was left on the trees were fairy drops, the sun shining through and illuminating them.

Another heavy little snow squall came through late afternoon and left tracings of snow on our front door mat, the pool cover, and the trees.

We are obviously seasonally-challenged here in New Jersey this year.

Sailor Update: Thanks to all who have expressed concern over Sailor’s lymphoma. He has had two chemo treatments and so far all is well. His lymph nodes were down by 50% after the first treatment and the vet was very pleased. This past week they have gone down even more. He has tolerated the chemo very well and each treatment was a different drug. He will continue weekly chemo treatments for another five weeks, then they will be every other week with one in four being just a pill at home. He is eating well and happy. If you didn’t know you’d swear there was nothing wrong with him.

I don’t know what the future holds for him, but all we can do is take one day at a time and make the most of it. Keep sending those good thoughts. I think they are working!